


Meet Me Where The Cliff Greets The Sea

by Theyna_Shipper



Series: Star Wars One-Shots [42]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Hospitals, Illnesses, Near Death Experiences, Roommates, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29480613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theyna_Shipper/pseuds/Theyna_Shipper
Summary: Ben has managed to live a fairly normal life as a human, despite being a selkie. His mother hid his pelt when he was young, and he hasn't seen it since.But when Rey finds it and hides it without knowing what it is, they ate bonded to each other for life... And Ben refuses to tell her what's happened.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Star Wars One-Shots [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637683
Comments: 5
Kudos: 74





	Meet Me Where The Cliff Greets The Sea

**Author's Note:**

> I know you're thinking, "Aren't you supposed to be updating your WIP?" And my answer is.... *disappears into the woods*
> 
> (Also, I know I took some liberties with the Selkie lore. My house, my rules)

“Ben?” Rey pulls a box out of an old bureau in the attic. “Do you know what this is?” 

Ben looks up and sees her open it to reveal a large fur coat. “It’s really nice. I’m surprised I never saw your mom wear it.” 

He feels his heart leap into his throat. That can’t be what he thinks it is… it’s just a fur coat, he tells himself, just a fur coat. 

“It’s got your name on the label. Recognize it.” 

“No,” he says, so quickly it startles Rey a little. “No, I don’t. It must have been my grandmother’s, she was friends with a Ben.” 

“Do you want it?” She holds the box out to him. 

He is filled with an overwhelming desire to take the coat from her, and it takes all the restraint he has not to reach out and clutch it in his fists. His mother warned him this would happen if he ever found his coat, and now he is truly afraid that he will not be able to resist. He locks onto Rey’s eyes, to ground himself, and avoids looking at the coat. 

“Just ask my dad what to do with it. We can have it put in storage or something.” Every word takes effort to push out.

She shrugs indifferently, and puts the lid back on the box. _Thank goodness._

He hasn’t seen his coat since he was a child, and his mother decided she wanted to live as a human with Ben’s father. She made Han hide her own coat, and she hid Ben’s herself. So long as they never found the coat, they could live on land their whole lives, and while they would always miss the sea, they could be very happy. 

But if he ever so much as touched the coat again, he would return to the sea, and could never live on land again. 

He never expected to see the coat again, not after his mother died. But here they are, cleaning out her attack as his dad prepares to move away, and _Rey is holding his coat._

“Listen, I’ll finish tidying up in here while you take care of that, okay?” He needs her to get rid of the coat _right now._

“You sure you don’t need help?”

“I’ll be fine,” he snaps, and Rey scrambles downstairs quickly. 

He sits on the floor and rests his head in his hands. _How had this gone so horribly wrong?_ Quite frankly he would have hoped that his mother would have taken more care to keep the pelt hidden. He supposes she thought his fear of the dark would keep him out of the attic, and it did for twenty years, but not anymore. 

He hears Rey talking to his father downstairs, and plugs his ears so he cannot pick up on anything, even accidentally. 

There were several rules that dictated his life on land, the most important being that he never found it: if he did, he would need to return to the sea, and could never live on land again. But it also bound him to whoever had hidden the coat. They didn’t need to stay physically close at all times, so long as they remained connected and saw each other again eventually.. This was why Han and Leia’s relationship, even in its turbulence, was always resolved sooner or later. Same for Ben’s relationship with his mother. Even when it was strained, they always made up in the end. 

And now Rey has it. 

Lord, what has he gotten himself into?

* * *

“Han?” Rey calls as she walks out. 

“That you?” He pokes his head out of the kitchen, where he’s washing their dishes from lunch. “You kids done already?” 

“Almost. Ben said he’d finish up. I think he needed some time alone,” she admits. 

Han nods. “What’s that you’ve got there?”

“This? Oh, just an old coat I found. Ben said it must have been Padmé’s.” She admires the coat for a moment. “Hey, do you know if Ben has a thing about fur? He seemed to really hate it when I had it out. I was thinking of getting a cat for the apartment but if he doesn’t like fur…”

Rey does not notice the way Han’s expression shifts upon hearing this, only hears him say. “I think he’d be fine with a cat.” 

“Only fur off the animal he minds?” He nods. “Maz is like that too. Loves animals, but can’t stand fur clothes, even fake.” 

“Did he tell you what to do with it?” 

“He told me to ask you.” 

“Can you get it put in a storage unit? The family has one about an hour from here, if you can drop it off I’ll have Ben get dinner from that restaurant you like.” He bought the storage unit for Leia’s coat, and never told her about it. Ben’s will be safest there too. 

The bribery works easily on Rey, and she takes the storage unit key, blissfully unaware of the precious cargo she is carrying.

Meanwhile, Ben finishes cleaning the attic, and comes down the ladder to find his father waiting for him on the couch. 

“Hey, kid.” 

Ben grips the ladder, wondering if he can go back up to the attack and remain there forever. 

“Rey says she found a coat while she was cleaning.” 

“Yes,” he growls.

“Then it’s what I think it is?” 

Well, he doesn’t exactly see dozens of fur coats lying around– nor does he see Rey. “Where is she?” 

“I don’t think I should tell you.”

“Fuck, you had her hide it, didn’t you?” 

Han winces. “Look, kid, I didn’t know what to do with it, and I thought, you know, since she lives with you, and you’re friends–”

“You don’t know how this works, do you?” 

“Your mom told me that while the skin is hidden we’d be connected, and we’d need to stay connected.” 

“That’s not all,” Ben replies. “If Rey moves away permanently, or we lose contact, or if she feels significantly less attached to me than I do to her–”

“I don’t think she does,” Han says quietly, but he’s been saying that for years and Ben does not believe him. 

“–then either I can try to hunt down the coat and return to the sea, or…” 

“Or what?” 

“It doesn’t matter,” he growls. “Just promise me you won’t tell her any of this.” 

“Kid–”

_“Don’t.”_

Because if Rey finds out, she’ll think he’s crazy, and she’ll leave him. 

And if she leaves him, he will die.

* * *

They go back to their apartment in Chicago a few days later, just before Rey’s spring semester starts. Rey is in her last year of pre-law, and Ben is finishing his art history doctorate, while working part-time at a museum. 

Rey notices that Ben seems a little off, but attributes it to Leia’s recent death, and does her best to help him work through it. 

Ben, meanwhile is working through many things: his mother’s death, the lingering and dizzying effects of having come so close to his pelt, and, of course, the fact that the woman he is in hopelessly in love with unknowingly holds his soul in her very hands. 

Fortunately, though, he has not experienced any negative side effects from Rey hiding the pelt– so Rey clearly cares about him as a friend. So long as he manages not to fall even more in love with her, maybe he can make it through the year. 

Or maybe he could hop on the first flight out of Chicago and disappear into the sea. 

The further this drags on, the more appealing the second option seems.

* * *

“Happy birthday, Ben.” 

Rey is the only person he knows who consistently remembers his birthday, and this year she’s brought him a salted caramel cupcake, having finally guessed his favorite flavor. 

He flushes. “You didn’t have to do anything for me.” 

“But you’re so cute when I do,” she says as she lights the candle. “Make a wish, Ben.” 

He blows out the candle, and Rey claps and gives him a hug. 

When she starts to pull away, Ben pauses her for a moment, and starts to say, “Rey, I–”

“Yes?” Rey looks at him with her sweet hazel eyes, and suddenly he can’t go through with it. 

“Just… thank you. I appreciate it.” 

“It’s nothing, really,” she says with a smile. “Come on, we can watch that dumb sci-fi show you like.” 

“It’s not dumb,” he mumbles as she drags him out to the couch.

* * *

Rey has a tendency to fall asleep on the couch. It’s usually fine, because he can shake her awake and get her back to bed, but when an exam leaves her drained, not even an air raid siren could wake her, and that’s the situation Ben finds himself in now. 

“C’mon, Rey, wake up,” Ben whispers. But she only nuzzles against his hand and slumbers even deeper. 

He sighs. There’s clearly exactly one solution to this, one that he hasn’t had to pull out since she twisted her ankle jumping off a razor scooter she bought for two dollars in a yard sale (and yes, he told her she was too old for it, and no, she didn’t listen). 

In other words, he delicately scoops her up into a sort of bridal carry, careful not to disturb her, and carries her back to bed. 

It is all going remarkably well, until a sleepy Rey tries to drag him _down onto the mattress with her,_ and he is forced to push her away as he scrambles to turn off the light. 

Looking at her sleeping silhouette, he realizes this is probably the only time he will ever have the courage to tell her. 

“I’m in love with you.” 

Then he turns out the light, and does not sleep at all that night.

* * *

“BEN! I GOT INTO LAW SCHOOL!” 

She careens into him with a dangerous velocity that would knock him flat were he not so much taller than her. 

“Good for you!” Ben catches her and spins her around before setting her back down. “Where?” 

Rey practically burrows into her own sweatshirt, flustered and flushed with excitement. “U of M. With financial aid.” 

“Wow… congratulations, Rey.” 

“I’m so happy,” she says, and gives him another hug. “And I’ll just be a state away. I can come back for breaks and stuff, you could even visit me.” 

“I’d love to,” he mumbles into her hair. Finally he breaks the hug. “Come on, we’re going out for dinner to celebrate.”

“Ben, you don’t have to–” 

“No arguing, you’re going to be a lawyer, we’re celebrating.”

Rey grins, and lets herself get dragged off by Ben, and for once Ben can forget about everything and just be happy.

* * *

He’s known, for a long time, that Rey was going to leave sooner or later. But her getting accepted into law school makes that reality ever-more pressing, especially when she starts planning her drive and her moving in and everything else. (Not wanting to lose a single second with her, he’d offered to drive her there, and she had eagerly declared it a road trip). 

Summer passes far too quickly, spent getting a ‘real grown-up job’ as Rey calls it (she also starts calling him _Doctor Ben._ One way or the other, she really will be the death of him), and escaping to Lake Michigan when they have the time. 

And now he is setting the last items in Rey’s apartment, while she hangs her few photos. He wonders absently if she brought the coat with her. Almost certainly not. 

He takes her out for lunch one last time, and she takes him out for dessert, and then they come back to the apartment and awkwardly figure out how to say good-bye. 

“I guess I’d better start driving if I want to get home before tomorrow,” he mumbles finally. 

Rey stands up to give him yet another rib-cracking hug. She’s been rather generous with them lately. 

“Hey. I’ll miss you. Take care of yourself, okay?” 

“You too. I mean, I’ll miss you too. And take care of yourself.”

She laughs sadly, and looks up at him from where she is wrapped around his chest like a koala around a tree. 

_I could kiss you right now,_ Ben thinks. He would need barely to tilt his head down, and he could put his lips on hers, and–

Rey pulls away. “Don’t forget about me, okay?” 

“Never.”

* * *

Ben starts feeling sick almost as soon as he gets home. He tries to tell himself it is nothing, he has heard other selkies experience separation sickness the first time they are away from their partners. 

He texts Rey when he can, and she responds when she can, but she is busy with her classes and her job and probably has made new friends, and soon their promise to call every week reduces to every two weeks, then three, then as-you-can. 

Ben starts to lose weight. He feels thirsty all the time, and quickly loses his appetite. 

His boss tells him he looks unwell. The barista at his usual coffee shop starts pushing food onto him with his coffee. Even his landlady says he looks like he should see a doctor. 

He doesn’t think that would help. 

He convinces himself it is not worth dragging Rey back here anyways. That even if he did, she would hate him for lying. 

Two months after Rey leaves, he passes out in the stairwell of his building while taking out the trash. A neighbour hears, and calls an ambulance. 

The doctors at the hospital are baffled– an otherwise healthy man becoming horribly malnourished in a matter of weeks, constantly dehydrated no matter how many fluids they give him, and drifting in and out of consciousness as if in a fever. 

With no idea what to do, they call his father and tell him he should pay a last visit. 

Han, however, knows just what Ben needs. 

She is there within six hours.

* * *

“Hey, sleepyhead.” 

Ben wakes up to a familiar voice, surrounded by the sterile walls of a hospital. 

“How are you feeling?”

“What are you doing here?” he rasps out. 

She passes him a glass of water. “Your dad told me you were... sick,” she says.

“You shouldn’t have rushed out here for me. What about your classes? Your scholarship?”

“They’ll be fine, Ben. I’m more worried about you.” Now that his vision is in focus, he can see that her face is pale with stress, and there are dark circles under her eyes. At least two cups of coffee sit on the table next to her. 

“Don’t be.” 

“Ben. You almost died.” She seems to expect him to be surprised, but he isn’t. “Now, Han said, ‘tell the kid to tell you everything, _actually_ everything, and if he doesn’t tell him I still have that blackmail material from first grade’. Intrigued as I was, I think I’d rather hear from you.” 

“Rey, this is going to sound crazy.” 

“Crazier than anything we’ve done before?” She smiles sadly. “You know you can tell me anything, Ben.” 

And maybe some combination of terror, painkillers, and something he can’t quite put a finger on give him the needed courage to tell her, the whole ugly story spilling out at once. He doesn’t stop talking until he sees her crying softly into her sweater sleeves. 

“You mean you could have _died?”_ she chokes out. “And you wouldn’t even have let me see you?” 

“I thought you would hate me,” he mumbles. “You wouldn’t be the first.” Plenty of Leia’s and Han’s friends had alienated them when the truth had slipped out to a few of them. 

“I could never hate you, Ben,” she sobs. “Never.” 

“Really?” 

She shakes her head. “I love you, Ben.” 

“You aren’t just saying that to keep me alive?” 

“Ben, you idiot,” she laughs. “I’ve been in love with you for at least a year. I’ve been trying to rop so many hints, but I thought you just weren’t…” she shakes her head

“I’ve been in love with you even longer.” 

“Not just because I have your… your pelt?” 

“Of course not,” he insists. “But… I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have with it.” 

Rey gives him a hug, but a gentle one this time, as he is still fragile, and Ben finally does what he meant to do two months ago, and gives her a gentle kiss. 

Rey doesn’t leave his side until he is well again, even when Ben insists she needs to go back to school. She won’t hear any of it, telling the doctors and the school that she is staying here, not caring if she loses her scholarship (she doesn’t, but she wouldn’t have cared either way.)

“Um, Ben? I do have a quick question.” 

“I thought you’d have some.” 

“Are we, like… married?” 

“Well,” Ben says with a grin. “According to tradition…”

**Author's Note:**

> Title- Elan, nightwish 
> 
> Thanks for reading! I would love a comment


End file.
